AUSTIN — As a humanitarian crisis continues unfolding at the Texas-Mexico border, the state’s top law enforcer announced another consequence of the chaos—a nearly $1 billion annual bill charged to Texas taxpayers.
On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he recently “uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars that Texas taxpayers involuntarily spent on illegal aliens every year,” including $152 million to “house illegal criminal aliens for just one year,” as much as $63 million annually to educate unaccompanied illegal immigrants, and as much as $717 million every year on public hospital districts to “provide uncompensated care” for individuals who are in the state illegally.
“Texans are hardworking and generous people, but the cost of illegal immigration is an unconscionable burden on the taxpayers of our great state. If we use the minimum estimated costs for services Texas provides to unlawfully present and undocumented aliens, taxpayers are shelling out an estimated $855 million every year,” said Attorney General Paxton in a press release.
Paxton’s announcement comes as President Joe Biden has been implementing policies to allow more illegal immigrants—including cartel members, sex traffickers, and criminals—into the country.
On his inauguration day, Biden signed an executive order halting nearly all deportations (later deemed unlawful by a federal judge) and has since taken other actions to dismantle President Donald Trump’s border protections, including ending his Migrant Protection Protocols.
Biden’s decisions opened a flood of illegal immigration into the country. Just in February, Customs and Border Protection announced it encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the border, with Department of Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas saying recently that border crossings were on track to be the highest they have been in 20 years.
Reports have also estimated more than 39,000 illegal immigrants have entered the country and have not been apprehended so far this year.
“Biden’s immigration agenda swings the door wide open to allow already-deported, armed child-raping illegal aliens from Mexico onto Texas soil,” tweeted AG Paxton recently. Paxton has been active over the past two months, suing the Biden administration for their “unlawful and perilous” immigration decisions and saying Biden’s actions are “far worse than ‘kids in cages.’”
Biden also unprecedentedly banned media from accessing the situation at the border, a decision that sparked a wildfire of public backlash and one he began backtracking just yesterday.
“We’ve seen what happens when you don’t secure the border…the negative consequences affect children, #Texas, and the rest of the country,” Paxton’s office tweeted recently. “And yet, for some reason the Biden administration wants to repeat all of that.”
“Texas will always welcome those who legally immigrate, but we cannot continue forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for individuals who skirt the law and skip the line,” Paxton concluded on Wednesday. “I will continue to fight for justice, safety, and prosperity for all Texans.”
